Progressive growers are looking at full-spectrum production systems to control diseases and offer additional crop health benefits.
The Midwest saw cooler than normal temperatures in May before temps swung 80 degrees in the other direction. Lynn Justesen, Technical Services Lead with UPL, talks about what corn and soybean growers should be looking for in the field.
?What does our emergence look like? What’s our crop looking like thus far? You’re getting some corn that’s starting to get into those stages where we’re starting set some of the yield parameters within a corn crop and some of the early-planted corn. So, cool temperatures are good for that because a corn plant can grow naturally and mature early, but it also kind of sets us up for some things not only in corn but also in soybeans as well. With the cooler night temps, we could be leading to some things like white mold in soybeans as we move forward too. So, there’s been some of this late frost is going to beat up crops, and we’re going to have some crops that are going to be challenged and well under stress. As we start thinking about the rest of the growing season and going through the rest of the year, that’s when I think of the start. We start this cumulative stress meter that’s been going on in that crop and anything we can do to help mitigate that or help alleviate that, we need to certainly take advantage of those opportunities when they come.?
Justesen describes disease concerns growers should be looking for.
?A couple of those big ones are white mold and some of the rust. The other one that I’m going to throw in there is that gray leaf spot. We get moisture and this crop starts to canopy, it’s going to show up from residue in the past, in particular, corn-on-corn fields, are going to have more issues. if we stay moist, we could have Gray Leaf Spot break on us early, as well. We see diseases starting to develop, and products like Zolera FX, which offer both curative and preventative disease control, and plant health benefits with those two AI’s, we can maximize our yield opportunities, protect the planet as best we can, and make sure we keep it healthy as it goes through its reproductive phase and spelling phase later in life.?
For more information on Zolera FX from UPL, go to upl-ltd.com.
(Story by NAFB)
